Govt secures 11 mln Euros in T-bills

TIRANA, July 25 – Government managed to secure only Euro 11 million in 12-month Euro-denominated T-bills this week in an auction where it was seeking to sell Euro 15 million. Average T-bill yields registered 5.66 percent, around 2.3 percentage points higher than Euro-denominated deposits, said the Finance Ministry. Interest rates for 12-month Euro denominated deposits currently stand at 3.3 percent.
Government will hold another auction on August 21 seeking another Euro 15 million in T-bills as part of campaign seeking the participation of migrants as some of the key banks have withdrawn from investing in Albania’s government debt.
Few weeks ago, government launched an awareness campaign targeting migrants for two auctions worth Euro 30 million.
Investing in T-bills proves more profitable than investing in deposits as 12-month T-bill currently stand at 7.35 percent while interest rate for 12 month lek-denominated deposits are at an average of 5.7 percent.
Although having lowered the key interest rate by 1 percentage point to a historical record low of 4.25 percent since Sept 2011, the Bank of Albania interventions in the monetary policy have not been reflected at all in lowering T-bill yields. Twelve-month T-bill yields have been on an upward trend since Dec. 2011 climbing from 6.95 percent to 7.38 percent in June 2012.